“Scream A Little Dream”

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Lost Girl blends humorous elements into supernatural drama so equally that it’s hard for the more emotional moments to land with sufficient heft. Thinking back to season one, I can only really come up with Kenzi’s reaction to the death of a potential love interest as a moment that hit home in a serious way—and that’s only because Kenzi is usually so sunny that seeing her cry was a huge contrast. While “Scream A Little Dream” doesn’t quite land the dramatic punch I think it’s aiming for by showing Bo’s worst nightmares, it certainly expands her characterization. Lost Girl sets clear emotional motivation for the way Bo acts and why she clings to the people around her.

A doorman named Frank calls on Bo’s services to investigate why an entire building of elderly people is going insane. He claims that he’s Light Fae but Bo doesn’t really do her due diligence—the guy is actually Dark Fae, and a Sandman, able to put people to sleep so his pregnant girlfriend, a Mare (short for Night-Mare) can feed on enough dreams to support her through her pregnancy. The Mare ends up haunting Bo, giving her sustained nightmares that won’t let up. Bo brings Lauren in to help, and after examining the residents and scanning Bo’s brain, Lauren discovers some kind of psychic connection between Bo and the Mare. She posits that Bo is unique, with powers nobody knows about, which is just a tiny drop of mystery to think on for the future. Trick’s solution is to find a Baku, a Fae that consumes dreams and nightmares, but those creatures are extremely rare. While Bo tries to ferret out the facts of the case, she gets mired in progressively worse nightmares that reveal a lot more about her personal character.

Bo’s ultimate fear is that she’ll end up alone again. One of her nightmares has her watching all of her friends at Trick’s bar laughing about how great things are when she isn’t around. A small moment like that really drives in that we’re supposed to understand this as Bo’s first somewhat stable environment. Lost Girl doesn’t have time to do that very often, but it’s nice to see the touch when possible. The dreams go even deeper, to Bo’s innermost fear. The culmination of all the nightmares ends with Bo meeting an older version of herself, sitting in her bed and lamenting the death of everyone she knows. Compared to Dyson and Trick, Bo is practically an infant in the Fae world, so this extrapolation isn’t outside the realm of possibility, while Kenzi and Lauren will live human lives and die even sooner. Again, this underlines that Bo’s biggest fear is being left alone again to fend for herself with no one else in her life that cares about her.

There are a few directions for Bo to pursue, now that her mother’s identity is off the table, but the show doesn’t seem to have decided which one to commit to. Bo is still dealing with the separation from Dyson, but that seems to be tapering off, and there was thankfully a lot less brooding and moping tonight. The potential romantic plot with Lauren is advancing glacially, in significant contrast to how hot and heavy things were with Dyson in the first season. The new Ash is more intrusive, and treats Lauren more like a piece of property to be ordered around, which upsets Bo’s conception of how the world should be. Finally, there’s the overarching question of Bo’s family, the way for her to find another lasting support system and give her a permanent place alongside other people. Her mother is still out there, and questions still remain about any other family members. It looks like the Lauren plot is first up, but I’d wager the family information will get a fair amount of investigation time down the line this season.

In contrast to the Mare feeding off of Bo’s nightmares, Kenzi had a pretty tame episode, staying out of danger and basking in some pampering. Typically I don’t like when Lost Girl decides to separate the intrepid duo, since they play off each other so well. But Bo’s nightmare journey can only happen alone, inside her head while she sleeps, so Kenzi is off having a comedic B-plot until Lost Girl needs to tie her back into the main plot with a solution to the Case Of The Week.

Kenzi wants to spruce up the house, but doesn’t want to put in any of the actual effort required to get the job done. Instead, she employs the services of a Brownie, a Fae based in Scottish and English folklore that cleans up dirty houses in exchange for gifts of food, especially honey and cereal. The plot is clear: Kenzi will take the Brownie for granted, he’ll mess things up further, then she’ll fix it all again just in time to help save Bo. Even with that telegraphed plot, it’s a lot of fun, because Ksenia Solo is just that great as Kenzi. Seriously, even though Anna Silk is dynamite as Bo, I’m still picking Solo as the breakout performance from this show (and she has a Gemini Award, or the Canadian Emmy, to prove it).

It feels like Lost Girl is still finding out how to change gears. Not that Dyson is on the back burner, the show is setting up some long-term plotlines for the 22-episode second season. We’ll get there, and I’m anxious to see more expansion of the Fae world as Bo learns more, but an episode like “Scream A Little Dream” succeeds by deepening the audience’s knowledge of the characters. Bo is already a compelling lead, but after going inside her head and seeing just what she’s afraid of, we know her even better, and can identify with her desire for companionship.

Stray observations:

It’s strange to talk about the first and second season as separate when SyFy is airing the first two seasons without a break in between.

Brownies aren’t just good at chores, they’re excellent personal shoppers. Kenzi’s reaction to the jacket might have been a little much, but I still laughed.

Kenzi, in response to Bo’s lame adage about spring-cleaning: “Okay, that should be on a Hurlmark card.”